Capsule Review: 1983 Ford Sierra Ghia 2.0

“Wait! Is that a…”

“Are you British?”

“I haven’t seen one of these since I left Venezuela as a teenager, only rich people had Sierras!”

Behold random responses from gawkers of TTAC’s Project Car. The surprises continue after several hundred miles under the Ford Sierra’s belt, as life with this fish out of water is far from a compromise.

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Vellum Venom: Uwe Bahnsen, Car Designer, RIP

Never forget: people make all the difference. This often overlooked fact in the glamorous world of automotive styling rings true for the life of Mr. Uwe Bahnsen. I froze in my tracks when I heard of his passing on Car Design News. His work at Ford and with the Industrial Design community influenced me, and every American who loved cars in the 1980s.

How ironic that Mr. Bahnsen’s passing was the week TTAC’s own Ford Sierra passed its citizenship test in Texas: so here’s a great Germanic-Texas Beer for you, Mr. Bahnsen.

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  • Redapple2 Like the color but would never buy. Gladiator? Love them. (but some say they drive super wonky?)
  • Redapple2 Note to layman. Lifts change the resting angles of suspension components. Then add full length of travel in the duty cycle and now you are repeatedly doing things to the suspension was never design for. Failures are very common and fatal. Do it only if you are stupid.
  • Redapple2 Stampings vs castings>? If you go casting, you ve entered one of the most complex corners of manufacturing. In aluminum? 30 different popular alloys. 8 Core methods. 10 Casting methods. 5+ Heat treat options. Then we can talk about what metal to make the mold out of. The layman has no idea how complicated this gets.
  • BlackEldo Anal grotto is NOT going to be happy about that H/K engine quip...
  • Tassos GOOD CAR GOOD PRICE. MILEAGE IS DECENT CONSIDERING HOW LONG HONDAS LAST. THUS SPOKE REAL TASSOS. BIDEN DOLLARS